Globalization in the 21st century is tied to Japanese identity. This paper will discuss the historical context in which globalization has become important to the experience of Japan and then examine the response that Japan as a nation has had to the phenomenon--which, despite evidence of the country's resistance to it, continues to unfold, to the benefit of many industrialized countries and ultimately to Japan's cost.
After World War II, Japan was vanquished, and what had been an imperialist economy was transformed into a capitalist system. The fact of that transformation was dominated by an internal shift from a defeated military empire into a superior force in international economics. Japanese politics appeared to stabilize as well, transforming from an imperialist, expansionist fascist police state to a government engaged in economic development and the conscious practice of representative government. As an occupied country after World War II, Japan was in theory subject to the whim of the occupying power. But in real terms, Japan appears to have developed economically in part because the American occupation was specifically and programmatically intended to help Japan, its former enemy, rebuild and develop its economy and to reshape its society in significant ways.
The rebuilding effort may have suited the already highly organized Japanese society, but it is also obvious that Japan served as a strategic American outpost during the Cold War. As it turned out, the unfolding of events in the aftermath of the Occupation enabled the Japanese to rely on outsiders for military-defense purposes. It enabled them to concentrate energies on economic development. Without the need for continued statist imperialism and militarist attitudes, Japan could make economic development its highest priority. Its economy recovered and flourished. Indeed, it became one of the world's top ten economies. Ohnuki-Tierney's reference to Japan's "apparently...